LOS ANGELES — Erik and Lyle Menendez will be eligible for parole after a judge on Tuesday reduced the brothers' sentences for murdering their parents from life without parole to 50 years to life.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering their father Jose Menendez and mother Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. Their case reached a major turning point last year when then- Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said he was reviewing new evidence in the case.
The brothers would still need approval from the state's parole board to get out of prison. They could potentially go free on time served after spending nearly 30 years in prison for the murders. The state parole board will ultimately rule on whether to release them from prison.
Here's a look at their case over the last three decades:
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1990s
March 1990: Lyle Menendez, then 21, is arrested. A few days later, Erik Menendez, 18, turns himself in. They are charged with first-degree murder.
July 1993: The Menendez brothers go on trial, each with a separate jury. Prosecutors argued that they killed their parents for financial gain. The brothers' attorneys don't dispute the pair killed their parents, but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.